Difference between revisions of "Atheist intolerance"

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-==Overview==
-[[category:troll phrases]][[Atheist intolerance]] is an [[anti-atheism]] [[troll phrase]]. It [[claim-smuggling|smuggles in the claim]] that [[atheist]]s are [[social intolerance|intolerant]] of non-atheists, i.e. [[religious]] people and [[agnostic]]s.
-===Analysis===
-Intolerance involves a refusal or failure to examine other ideas to look for merits. Atheism is based on principles which naturally give rise to inquiry, investigation, and open-mindedness. Those who claim "atheist intolerance" tend to be advocates of religious [[ideological protectionism]], which they see as threatened by atheist inquiry. They are themselves advocating intolerance when they use the claim of "intolerance" to suppress this inquiry.
-Also, although atheists have become increasingly [[organized atheism|organized]] in the past few years, atheism is not a centrally-organized entity &ndash; so it doesn't make sense to speak of them as if they were unified in any attitude other than the definitional one, i.e. not believing in [[God]](s). Some individual atheists may be intolerant in some ways, but that would generally be ''counter'' to the principles upon which atheism rests, rather than an indictment of atheism itself.
-===Misuse===
-It is true that atheists are, generally speaking, intolerant of a number of things:
-* stupid ideas
-* sloppy thinking
-* arguments which depend on [[logical fallacy]] or [[rhetorical deception]], i.e. are dishonest
-* ''any'' form of dishonesty
-* religion in general, due to the many problems with it:
-** really bad ideas being defended solely on the basis of religion
-** evil committed in the name of religion
-** religious advocacy which claims that [[morality requires religion]]
-** religious advocates who claim that ''their'' religion is the only ''true'' source of morality
-** religious people who say insane things...
-** ...which are taken seriously...
-** ...because they are religious
-Refusing to tolerate demonstrably bad ideas or the people who promote those ideas is not, however, what is usually meant by [[social intolerance|intolerance]]. "Intolerance" is seen as a bad thing because of the ''refusal to examine'' and ''refusal to see the good'' (throwing out the baby with the bath water); this is a very different thing from considered and specific criticism.
-===Conclusion===
-This is a [[troll phrase]] due to its dishonest [[claim-smuggling]], its conceptual inversion (atheism is innately more tolerant than religion), and its slippery misuse of the word "intolerance".

Difference between revisions of "Atheist intolerance"

Revision as of 01:04, 24 January 2011

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